The School of Construction and the Environment now offers a Climate Changemakers Leadership Training Microcredential. Initiated by the Centre for Ecocities in collaboration with the BC Youth Climate Corps, this curricula enables people with a passion and interest in sustainability and climate action to prepare themselves for careers that positively impact people and the planet.
The Centre also offers a customizable workshop for youth leaders called Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership Training. This workshop can be scaled from a half day to five days and covers climate science, leadership skills, and strategies for local action. It is customizable and can be delivered in collaboration with other organizations. Contact the Centre to learn more: EcocityCentre@bcit.ca.
The workshop has been offered to young people across Canada and around the world in collaboration with UN Habitat Youth Programme, UN Environment Programme Data Resources and Colleges and Institutes Canada. Additional learning tools are available at The One UN Climate Change Learning Partnership.
The first international Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership Training was held on August 12th, 2021, following a half-day pilot workshop delivered on April 2021.
Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership Training builds on the Fridays for Future movement to support climate action for cities with youth, the most engaged climate emergency demographic. The training moves beyond strikes by increasing the capacity and knowledge for youth on how to organize and take action for climate change, regardless of age or location.
The three-hour workshop was delivered in three modules in which participants learned about:
- Sustainable Living: the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), global sustainability challenges, and how to achieve one-planet living.
- Leadership: how to organize and coordinate climate impactful projects in communities.
- Governance: how to strategically communicate with government officials.
Workshop participants joined from across Canada and around the world, including Belize, Brazil, Columbia, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Lebanon, Mexico, Mozambique, Pakistan, United States, and Venezuela.
Engagement was high throughout the trainings and participants particularly found great value in connecting with one another, both to learn from one another as well as to know they’re not alone.
Next phases for the Climate Changemakers Youth Leadership Training are in development.